By 247ureports.com
A report alleging that suspected bandits kidnapped 18 students of Gamji College of Health Technology, Sokoto, while travelling to their hometowns in Oyo State, and killed their bus driver, remains unverified after the institution issued a direct, on-record denial that any such incident occurred.
The Original Claim
SaharaReporters first reported the alleged attack on Monday, citing a youth leader from the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State who said gunmen intercepted a chartered bus carrying students from Gamji College to Oke-Ogun, with Igboho as their specific destination, within the preceding 48 hours. The source said the attackers killed the driver — whose remains were reportedly buried on Saturday — before abducting all the students on board, and that the kidnappers and their captives were last believed to have reached the Mokwa axis in Niger State. The source also clarified that the victims were not, as some earlier versions of the claim suggested, students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDUS).
The College’s Denial
Gamji College of Health Technology has flatly rejected the report. Registrar Abdulrahman Bello told Premium Times the claim was false, and the institution later issued a formal statement: “The College wishes to categorically state that the said report is false, misleading and does not reflect the true situation,” adding that its students are safe and have reached their various destinations.
What’s Actually Established
As of this report, the only account supporting the kidnapping claim comes from the unnamed youth leader cited by SaharaReporters; the institution the students are said to belong to has explicitly and publicly denied the incident took place. No police statement, security agency confirmation, or independent corroboration of the abduction has emerged. Based on currently available information, it is not established that 18 Oyo-bound students from Gamji College were kidnapped, and 247ureports.com is not in a position to confirm the report as accurate.
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The claim surfaces amid a genuinely high rate of school-linked kidnappings and banditry involving Oyo State residents this year, including the killing of abducted schoolteacher Michael Oyedokun in Oriire LGA earlier in 2026 and a separate mass abduction of 39 students and 7 teachers from an Oyo school — a documented history that may have made this latest, unverified claim appear more plausible on first circulation.
